Chapter 104: An Unexpected Confrontation.
"I never thought something that I learned through my last Dynasty History Event would be so useful in the future."
"A stroke of luck that gave me a vital secret and partnership with one of the most powerful factions and noble houses in the world of Dynasties Online."
"The fact that Sigismond Security Solutions, so renowned for its trustworthiness…."
"Was nothing more than a pawn created by House Aurellion's scheming hands."
Parmenio Paretti, an Italian player and head of House Ryemire, a merchant family in Nathia.
….
When the battle was over, the Count of Brineyard trotted over with 50 knights behind him who had accompanied him on a 'hunting trip' where he had just happened to be passing by this caravan that was attacked and went over to help. Such a happy coincidence! At least, that is what the official report would say.
He looked over the piles of dead men that were being stacked as other soldiers dug a pit to bury the dead so their corpses would not rot in the wild. A few jet-black crows cawed as they landed on the dead men and feasted on their remains. Some tried to punch through the men's armour to get their meal, while the smarter ones found and ate through the many gaps in their armour caused by the pelican guards. Even if it was a stab and not a slash that killed them, it still left a hole that the hungry crows now used to enjoy their newly found feast. No matter how big or small the battlefield, these vultures seemed to be able to find it.
Sigismond went over to meet the count alongside Ralston, but unlike his usual casual and friendly demeanour, his expression had darkened the multiethnic noble's gaze and became sharp and unrelenting.
By then, Sigismond knew….
The Count knows about them and their true identity; something had clued him in.
'Damn, I forgot our fighting style is unique and can lead to us revealing our identity!'
The disguised Darius thought. he had assumed that because he was in the middle of the kingdom and away from the northern border, no one would be able to recognise them by their fighting style as few would remember it or have the ability to differentiate it from the fighting style used by all armies in the Chavarian Empire. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as he ran into one of the few people who could.
While the Pelican Guard uses the usual Chavarian swordsmanship as a base because they were trained by Leon when he was a master fighter, their fighting style subconsciously took on elements of the grandmaster of loyalties' unique fighting style, especially in their spearmanship, which was Leon's best skill and so was the most advanced of all his martial skills.
It is well known that no matter what technique or style someone uses as their base to become a master, you have to change aspects of it to fit your personality and make a fighting style truly your own by creating your own skills, which is why there is no 'master level swordsmanship instead you will find that each skill has a unique name. Only then will you have become a master fighter. This is why unless two people have extremely similar personalities, it is almost impossible for them to have the same fighting style. Of course, there are titles and fighting styles that can be passed down from master to student up until the master level, but those are rare and have to be made by a grandmaster fighter into a book, making them extremely valuable and fought over by many dynasties who look to get their hands and even then it is not a guaranteed thing.
In the past, even kingdoms have gone to war with each other to gain these precious books, causing tens of thousands of deaths, all to acquire just one book.
After all, even using this method, you need a certain amount of talent and knowledge to become a master, as just because someone has the recipe to make some food does not mean they can make it as good as the original. It is also why master fighters who use this method to become experts are dubbed 'false experts' and get destroyed by what has been dubbed 'true experts' by people.
The main difference between a 'true expert' and a 'false expert' is the same as someone who has all the theories and knowledge on something but cannot put it into practice properly and someone who has the same knowledge and expertise but can put it into practice. In addition, because nothing is unique about a false expert's style if someone is familiar with the style, they can exploit its weaknesses, allowing them to completely suppress the false expert, which is why true experts are valued far more than fake experts and, as a general rule, true experts usually had a few unique trump cards up their sleeves to help them out in an emergency while false experts did not.
"What does House Aurellion want here?"
The count asked by his side was his trusty goblin advisor Telx. Both were looking at them with suspicion after Count Nidor correctly guessed these mercenaries' true identity as soldiers of House Aurellion, still confused as to why the exiled noble house would make such a high-profile move when they had been silent for the past few months.
'Apart from me, there is probably only one other man in the kingdom who would recognise the fighting style of the Pelican Guard.'
'You would recognise them, wouldn't you, Ranier?'
The Count thought to himself, remembering his brother-in-arms and friend who was still shielding the kingdom from the expansionist empire. It was mainly because of him that Nidor had secretly joined the crown prince's faction, giving Kodjis much-needed support in the vital Duchy of Detarnor as he was taken out of his stupor by 'Sigismond's reply, though by now the wise count assumed that even this was a false identity to help cover up who the mercenary group was truly loyal to.
"Who said we are still related to House Aurellion? We may have been soldiers under its previous lord. Don't you think your instincts could be wrong? Shouldn't the Pelican Guards be protecting their lord instead of galivanting out here?"
Sigmund said, mixing in the truth with a lie as they were soldiers under Lucius' command, but they were still related to House Aurellion.
"Do you really think that you can get out of this? Who else but House Aurellion's renowned Pelican Guards fights like that?!!"
"While your fighting style is so similar to the ones used by imperial soldiers, a trained eye like mine can tell the difference!"
The count sarcastically laughed after saying what was on his mind, his hands shaking as he tried to stay calm, for even if it was war and House Aurellion had little choice, getting over the death of one's father and working with their killer was something few people could do without getting emotional.
"It's quite simple a place to live peacefully with my lord's subjects if I had to say why we did it this way."
"Well, my lord wanted money to help his men sustain a living while I wanted to fight against corruption."
"Can you really say the duchy won't benefit from our actions?"
Darius asked, his voice still casual, but there was a cold hardness to it as the man and all his men readied their weapons, ready to attack at a moment's notice, dropping the act, knowing that it was useless for whether he was right or wrong as far as Count Nidor was concerned they were House Aurellions Pelican Guards.
If the count were not a well-known noble whose death would stir up a storm, the Pelican Guard commander would have tried to kill him already as right now, apart from securing the gold and reputation to be able to allow their noble house to survive and maintain its power nothing was more important than secrecy.
This is because they had too many enemies, as few people knew of their true capabilities, and even if they did, they had no way of easily finding them in this vast world if they wanted to hide because it was too big.
It was a shame, though, that most of the honour for the success of the Siege of Nartook 8 years ago was taken primarily by Ranier Lantier, and so much like with House Aurellion's escape from Chavaria, it led to the count to have his contributions lowered and even then few people would take note or even be able to tell the difference between the usual fighting style of the empire soldier's and the Pelican Guard for only an experienced master or a grandmaster's watchful eye would be able to see the difference due to how similar it was.
The main reason that Darius even took the risk to make such a high-profile manoeuvre was that there was no easy link that could be found between the mercenary company and House Aurellion. If he knew about the count and the man's history, he would never have suggested having him help, but unfortunately for Darius, he did not have time to do a thorough background check on the count, which led to the current tense situation.
"I can't say the duchy won't gain from your actions…. After all, this is the first time in a while that anyone has ever been able to put the duke and his minions on the back foot."
The count said thoughtfully as he saw Lucian tie up Captain Packard and roughly shove part of his crimson cloak into the man's mouth to stop him from killing himself as he was an important prisoner, one who they could use to accuse The Red Blades of being bandits and of illegal activity.
Even if the mercenary group somehow survives by sending the perpetrators to the gallows, their reputation would be shattered, and everyone would know that Sigismond Security Solutions could even stand up to nobility, which would bring them many clients looking for their services, especially those looking to get through the territory of a hostile noble.
Once this sort of thing became public knowledge, it would be too much work instead of too little that would plague this mysterious security service, who would not lower their standards for anyone as countless applications to join them would be rejected and even more applicants leaving due to the mercenary groups unrelenting training.
This is, of course, as long as the count backs up Darius' and Ralston's story as the mercenary captain had tied the merchant to his war chariot the moment he accepted their protection instead of The Red Blades, but considering what happened here, Ralston had no choice as it would be that or death.
"But is that all there is to it?"
"Did you really offend a powerful duke that much just because of money?"
"Surely there are other ways to get a similar result."
The count asked, as even now, commoners like them with seemingly no backing winning against the duke was crazy. Of course, he knew the person backing them, but that was an exiled noble house with a 10-year-old lord, and yet they still did something so audacious.
In addition, no one would be able to link them to House Aurellion or even imagine them to be related. If he were not so familiar with the Pelican Guard's fighting style and confident in their identity, even he would have been deceived and kept in the dark by them due to how good their cover was.
These were also the Pelican Guards! House Aurellion's most loyal soldiers, so even if it seemed impossible, there was only one person they would take orders from, and that was the lord of House Aurellion himself.
"Yep, we did this because of money, but this was the fastest, and without you somehow realising our true identity, everything would have gone to plan."
"We would have made money while helping to clean up some of the shit within this duchy."
Sigismond said, gripping the spear in his hand tightly.
"Do you really think 150 men is enough to deal with me and my men?"
The count said with a threatening tone, realising that if this conversation went awry, then these men would not hesitate to silence him, and they may even get rewarded by Duke Ridorfin for doing so, allowing them to achieve their objective while keeping their rather sensitive identity a secret.
"Who said they aren't?"
Sigsmond responded, not concerned in the slightest about the count's threat, for this would not be the first time that he had led 100 men to kill a master fighter.
Darius and Aldorus were known as the 'Twin Blades of Aurellion' by their enemies, effortlessly breaking through enemy formations to take the heads of important people and experts, so this would not be the first time he had killed a master-level fighter.
"You can't bring a grandmaster or move too many experts with you even if you wanted to, right?"
Sigismond said with a knowing smile.
"After all, that bastard of a duke is not stupid and would watch all your skilled fighters closely, especially when he is conducting such an important mission like this one."
"Am I right, my lord?"
Sigismond said, and the count's silence was all he needed for him to know that his assumption was correct.
He had the advantage if this altercation of theirs turned violent.
"So apart from a few veteran knights a level below my own men….."
"There is only you, my lord, and I can assure you I am more than enough to hold you off until all your knights are dead!"
Darius said, his eyes turning cold as if he was only looking at a bunch of dead men, confident in being able to kill them all here if needed.
Count Nidor thought for a bit. Considering all his options, it did not seem like there was any other real motivation for House Aurellion making this move as they had 1500 men at least to look after if reports coming out of Chavaria were to be believed and so posing as ex-soldiers who served under Lucius and have now become mercenaries was the perfect cover for them allowing them to prevent their fighting skills from rusting while making money to survive at the same time.
There are also rumours of civilians from Railius' old territory moving around different places, whether it is going to the dwarven kingdoms to the north, to Nathia in the south or through the Beastman United States. All these places have found people of Chavarian descent moving to or through them.
Considering House Aurellion's reputation, there is no way that they would leave their loyal men's family in Chavaria, and so it was likely that there were at least 5000 citizens, if not more, that they would need to look after in the near future, which would explain why they were so desperate to make money so they can settle them down without attracting too much attention as a large refugee camp was not what many people would consider as low key.
The man in front of him was also correct.
He did not have the ability to kill them right now, and even escaping was not guaranteed. Even if he could attempt to fly away, he would likely be attacked before getting high enough to escape.
"Swear to me on the life of your young lord that this is not a Chavarian plot, and we can work together."
Count Nidor said, his voice straining at the thought of working with a hated enemy being worried that this was what he was worried about that the emperor had faked the death of Lucius and made trouble in Nathia so he could give him an army and finally take Nartook Fortress.
One had to admire Count Nidor's imagination as this was the sort of scheme that Lucius would come up with, but in this case, he was wrong, so without hesitation, Sigismond said.
"I swear."
"I swear on my lord's life that this scheme had nothing to do with Chavaria."
The best outcome for both of them would be to work together to help curb the corruption that had burrowed itself deep in the duchy.
"By the way, what's your name? Not your damn fake name but your real name."
Count Nidor said, taking a deep breath to calm himself and his raging emotions.
"Darius, Second Commander of the Pelican Guards, greets your lordship!"
Darius said, cupping his fists in respect for the nobleman.
"Darius huh…. Well, Darius, you should be off to the capital. I'll begin the report to the duke. I do hope he enjoys our early birthday present.
While the two were speaking, another man overlooked by both Nidor and Darius was listening intently, forgotten by both men. His status as a merchant and his lack of military power made him like an insignificant ant to them. But the ever-cunning player noted this critical information and this new noble house with such powerful units and a secret affiliation with this mercenary group.
'House Aurellion eh?'
'Seems I need to investigate them further.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
LaziestDragon
LaziestDragon Sorry for the late chapter, i was considering how much information to put in the latest Patreon chapter and collecting all the stuff that has to do with House Aurellion.
The next chapter should be out tomorrow.
As always thank you for reading and your continued support for the novel no matter what form that takes and there are 10 advanced chapters on Patreon for those who want them.
See you tomorrow! (hopefully, as long as everything goes as planned)
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/kzT7hrnFYp
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